I’m definitely finding that a lot of vegetables are growing slowly this season, and, having just done a road trip visiting friends ‘up country’ and seeing their gardens, I think I am not the only one!
The most noticeably slow to grow are courgettes and squashes – my courgettes are barely even flowering yet, and the plants are very small, and the squashes are unusually small too, with male flowers but still not many females. I really hope the next few weeks will be warmer to give them a good chance. There are already signs of powdery mildew on the squashes, and that normally doesn’t take hold in my veg patch until August.
Peas and mangetout are also extremely slow – I’m sure I’d normally have started harvesting before now, but I’ve only seen a few pods begin to form in the past couple of days. My tomato plants are still fairly small too, only about 2 and a half foot tall, although there are a few fruits forming, so hopefully I’ll get a passable crop at least. Surprisingly the sweetcorn seems to be doing well, and broad beans are coming through now, so all is not lost. I’m not holding out much hope for my potatoes – the leaves already look very yellow and patchy, which I assume is down to the dampness in the air.
It’s a reminder of how much the weather affects the garden – it’s easy to take harvesting times for granted, but without the warmth both in the soil and in the air, and without the sunshine, my crops are struggling this year.